Storytelling Connects Students Across Borders and Tragedies

NEW HAVEN - There were still six months of school left, but Newtown High School English teacher Lee Keylock was at a loss. After the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Keylock did not know how to proceed with his students.

"Everyone was really broken after what happened," Keylock said. "We needed a new purpose to head towards light."

This light came to Keylock in the form of a book entitled "Let the Great World Spin" by Irish writer Colum McCann. The novel based on the World Trade Center attacks offered a vision of redemption.

Keylock wrote to McCann, who sent free books for the students and later visited Newtown.

McCann introduced Keylock and his students to an organization called Narrative 4, which McCann helped start.

Narrative 4 is a global organization, based in Chicago and founded by authors from around the world. It focuses on uniting people through storytelling. Students exchange personal stories one-on-one and then each person must retell their partner's story to the group in first person.

Keylock, along with several other Newtown students and teachers, attended a N4 panel discussion on Sunday at Southern Connecticut State University.

"Story exchanges allow people to own the story of another," said Lisa Consiglio, executive director and co-founder of N4. "It forces us to really take ownership of another person's life, which we rarely do, if ever."

While the exchange was intended as part of the healing process, Keylock said the students' stories did not focus on the shooting. Instead of talking about that one moment, their stories ranged from first kisses to Christmas vacations to divorced parents, he said.

"It was a breath of fresh air for the kids to not be recognized by what happened on 12/14," Keylock said. Healing came from the process of telling each other's stories and escaping the constant reminders of the shooting, he said.

For the Newtown high schoolers, it was a chance to open up after being touched by tragedy. It was a moment to "expose something raw and vulnerable about yourself," according to seventeen-year-old Sophia DeVivo, who participated in the exchange.

The audience for Sunday's panel included students from various cities in the U.S., Ireland, Mexico and South Africa, all of whom participated in story exchanges through N4.

Sixteen-year-old Likhaya Rooi, of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, was excited to take part in the program because it was an opportunity "to not think about yourself only, but think about others."

Carla Domingo, 17, from Tampico, Mexico said her story exchange experience was powerful and personal.

"When you receive a story and recite your own, you feel like you gave part of yourself away, but also got a part of someone else too," Domingo said.

The discussion was part of a summit N4 is holding in New Haven. The summit, which started Friday and concludes today, includes story exchanges, panel discussions and suggestions for improvement. The goal is to connect members of the advisory board and student ambassadors who have participated in story exchanges in order to plan the future of N4, Consiglio said.

Keylock, who recently left his post at Newtown High School for a position as director of global programs at N4, said the program was instrumental at Newtown High School. "It gave us a chance to take something from that tragedy and turn it into something beautiful, if that's even possible," Keylock said.